Tandem style color laser printers are known for their use as image-forming devices in electrophotography. For example, the laser printer described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-107838 is equipped with several image-forming portions including a photosensitive drum, developing device, charger, etc. that are housed inside the main unit casing. Each of the image-forming portions is housed in a drawer and is configured so that the drawer can be drawn out from the main unit casing and the developing device can be replaced.
Such an image-forming device often have guiding walls that extend from the front to the back inside the main unit casing and which are used to guide the insertion and removal of the drawer. Additionally, when the drawer has been removed, support portions that are positioned at the rear of the drawer come into contact with the downward-facing surfaces of the guiding walls so that the guiding walls bear the upward load from each support portion and vertical inclination of the drawer is limited.
However, when parts in the drawer are heavy, the load on the support portions increases when the drawer is pulled out making it more difficult to insert or remove the drawer. As a countermeasure, it is conceivable that locating the support portions closer to the rear would reduce the load on the support portions. However, when the drawer is extended rearward to locate the support portions farther back, the device increases in size.